STAT+: Divergent trial results on cancer vaccines have the field grappling with hard questions

The article is framed around divergent trial results that have left the cancer vaccine field grappling with hard questions, even as the mRNA approach remains exciting to researchers and much remains unknown. A recent late-stage success—Merck and Moderna’s August report that adding their mRNA cancer vaccine to an existing treatment slowed the return and spread of melanoma—boosted hopes that the strategy could be harnessed against other cancers. The key open questions are which cancers mRNA vaccines can effectively treat and whether the mRNA platform itself is capable of meeting that challenge.

The field had been awaiting the melanoma data “with bated breath,” according to Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, the research organization founded by Sean Parker. The results for the drug, called intismeran autogene, suggested that using messenger RNA to train the immune system to attack cancer cells—an idea first devised decades ago—was ripe for further drug development. STAT notes the full story is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers.